Family to increase its love with adoption

Neomiah, Ryan and Ezekiel Hawk share a moment together on the family's couch. The Hawks are finalizing the adoption of Ezekiel, 6, on Saturday as part of National Adoption Day.(Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

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When you enter the Hawk home, you're bound to catch glimpses of two little bright-eyed faces zipping around the East Side abode.

You see them zipping around even as older sisters Jordin, 7, and Rian, 12, sit calmly on the couch and talk about their busy days at school and being in cheerleading, Girl Scouts or ballet. All the while, Neomiah, 7, and Ezekiel, 6, pop up from behind the couch, jump on their dad, Ryan, and then quickly scurry to other rooms, their trail of laughter never far behind.

"It's chaos. But it's a good chaos. This feels like home," said mom Kisha Hawk, sitting on the same couch as her girls.

Kisha Hawk is talking about what it's like to go from a relatively quiet family of four to a family of six as they prepare to adopt two rambunctious but loving brothers from Midland.

The Hawks will finalize the adoption of Ezekiel, who has been living with them for six months, on Saturday as part of the National Adoption Day celebration. The adoption will be in Judge Yahara Lisa Gutierrez's courtroom in the 65th Judicial District Court at the El Paso County Courthouse.

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The Hawk family gathers around the kitchen table. From left are Neomiah, 7; Jordin, 7; dad Ryan; Ezekiel, 6; mom Kisha; and Rian, 12. The Hawks are expanding their family with the adoption of the two biological brothers.(Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES)

Ezekiel will be one of 20 children between the ages of 1 and 12 who will be officially adopted Saturday. Neomiah has only been living with the family for a month, so his adoption will have to be later.

It will be a momentous day, considering there are more than 6,000 children in Texas who are in foster care and need permanent homes. The figure includes 144 children in El Paso County. Many have been waiting for years to be adopted.

National Adoption Day is a collective effort between judges and child advocates from the Women's Bar Association, CASA of El Paso and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to raise awareness of the thousands of children who are eligible for adoption.

Melissa Ferguson, a foster home developer for Child Protective Services, said the Hawks are a great couple who understand what foster children have gone through. The couple has been fostering children for three years and decided to look into adopting when letting go of their foster children became harder.

"They have very realistic expectations of themselves and are understanding of what normal child behavior is. They also understand when kids act a certain way because of the things they have been through and work through a situation with the kids they care for with those things in mind," she said.

"And even before Ezekiel came to them, they were advocating for him and setting up services for him. They already considered him their son," she said. "There's never been a doubt they wanted him."

With two sweet girls, Ryan Hawk, who works in adult probation, said he also always wanted a son and started looking at profiles on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange.

"I wanted to give (a son) what my parents had given me, to interact with him and do sports and teach him how to drive, all that fun stuff," he said.

The girls said they also liked the idea. Jordin wanted a buddy to play with.

Rian said, "I kind of stay in my room and don't play with her as much. So when we started fostering, it brought us closer together."

Kisha Hawk, a military family liaison at Milam Elementary, initially wanted a baby.

"When we started going through the process about foster care, and the different shelters and realizing there are so many older kids, it kind of shifted. I realized I had already been blessed to carry two of my own, and knew the whole carrying them, being in labor and the midnight feedings," she said.

Ryan Hawk said he spotted Ezekiel's photo on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange website Jan. 17 and knew he was looking at the face of his first son. Ezekiel and his four siblings were available for adoption because of problems their parents were struggling through. He had been in seven foster homes since the age of 2.

The couple met him a couple of times in Midland before he joined them at the end of May.

"It was good for us because we had the whole summer to truly bond as a family," Ryan Hawk said.

The family also was interested in brother Neomiah but at the time he was in the process of being placed in a home. His placement fell through and he joined his brother in El Paso on Oct. 13.

The family members said they have some rough days, but generally everyone has adjusted. Ezekiel has stopped getting up at night.

"We divide and conquer. The boys have karate and activities at church and we just signed them up for basketball," Ryan Hawk said.

Kisha Hawk added, "Yeah, they have too much energy to not do anything."

María Cortés González may be reached at 546-6150;mcortes@elpasotimes.com; @EPTMaria on Twitter.

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Ryan, Ezekiel and Kisha Hawk pose in the family's kitchen. The Hawks officially adopted Ezekiel in 2015 as part of National Adoption Day.(Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES)